I wanted to add my thoughts concerning Beltway last weekend. First off, I want to make clear that I thought the tournament ran well overall. It was a lot of fun, and the majority of packs were very good (there was only one which I thought really was not actually trashy). All of the moderators I heard were good readers, especially Rick Grimes. As far as I know it was Emmet's first time reading at a tournament, so he also deserves praise. Emmet had originally wanted to play at BBIV, and he came that morning to see if one of the teams with only three players would let him play. It turned out that GWACC needed extra staff, and so he ended up reading. I mention this because Edmund pointed out that GW was understaffed. As a suggestion for tournament directors, if you think you will be understaffed or lack buzzers (or even just break even since teams often forget the buzzers), please let the teams know. I know that Georgetown could have brought some additional officials if asked. We also have a buzzer system where only three buzzers work per side. If we had known that the tournament might be short buzzers, we would have gladly brought it. We just prefer not to lug it around, but there is nothing worse than slap bowl. One other point about moderators-- it is usually nice for the playoff teams to choose who they want to moderate. It's really the TD's discretion, but it can be a real honor for a moderator to know the two last teams want him or her to read. As far as the faulty records, and the resulting playoff problems, I do have a suggestion. Tournament directors make mistakes, especially when they are understaffed. One way to avoid this is to have the stats posted someplace where teams can check them and make sure they are correct. I know at one point the team from Cornell asked if the stats were posted somewhere, they were told that the win loss records were written on a board. Unfortunately, that board was in the central room, and the teams were not allowed in there. (As a side note, I am not sure which game was written incorrectly, but it was not the Georgetown-Cornell game. We did win that.) Finally, concerning the swearing at Beltway, I wasn't there for the incident in question, but I understand that the person in question was very upset. He was about to play in the playoffs and then received a great disappointment. What concerns me more than an incident of swearing that seems, if not justified, understandable, is that some people seemed overly competitive. It was really just a few incidents, but it seemed odd for players to get so upset at a trash tournament. Throwing things, swearing when you miss a question or someone else negs, or saying mean things about other teams all leave a bad taste in the mouth. Thank you to GW for running a fun tournament. The only thing that I would have really changed would have been to have a full round robin to accommodate the majority of teams who wanted one.
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